for the interview problem, yes, you can do better than your solution :) i must admit that if i were in an interview and haven't heard about it before, i probably would not have come up with the right solution. at least not without hints :)
you're getting close with jumping 8, 9, 10, 11 floors. the "official" solution is: first you let go from the 14th floor. then 14+13=27th floor. then 27+12=39th floor. and so on.
so the "official" solution has a better worst-case scenario performance than your solution. however, if we go beyond the "worst-case scenario performance", say best "average performance" (or "amortized" performance), then i have no idea what solution is optimal. i would guess that the official solution would do better, but it's not obvious. maybe there's a theorem that links the two but i'm not aware of it. i doubt the existence of such a theorem anyway (because i know in general worst-case performance says nothing about amortized performance), but it's not my field of expertise so i could easily be wrong.
the Wii is an epidemic.
